Our annual duckling rollercoaster of emotions has begun

[jellybean]

That is so sad willowsmum, nature can be so cruel sometimes.

[Hezz]

Nature has to cater to all creatures, unfortunately. Very sad for your duck family; I hope she can raise the remaining two without incident.🥺

Our last lot of nesting sunbirds had their nest fall down before the chicks were gone (I think the wind) but luckily daddy sunbird came to tell me as soon as I had walked outside. At first I thought the chicks were dead, but then one gave a little cheep, so hung it back up on its string, not to fall off under my, ahem, engineering. Then had the worry that the parents were not going to return, but they did after a couple of hours. The little ones were very hungry, but all ended well, thankfully. I may have noticed it too late if daddy bird hadn’t literally flown almost into my face and then back to where the nest should have been to tell me what had happened, bless him.

[Ira]

Aww, poor wee duckies. Alas, it is the way of nature. You've been taking good care of them, willowsmum, as best you can for wild animals. These things happen. Hopefully the remaining 2 will grow up strong.

Hezz Well done, daddy sunbird, for letting someone caring know. The relationships we can build with our garden wildlife always makes me smile.

[jellybean]

That's amazing, what a clever little Daddy Sunbird.
Glad you were there to help Hezz.

[Marianne Marlow]

Well done to daddy sunbird.

[willowsmum]

Thanks for the tips re the mice @arellia.

That's one clever little Sunbird Hezz, he must have known that you are fluent in birdlish

Unfortunately I suspect the 2 remaining ducklings haven't survived. We saw mum leading them through the back hedge and out across the fields last night and today a female which I'm fairly certain is her is on the pond without them

On a positive note she is still being courted by the males and so may well lay another clutch and our second female is still sitting tight on her eggs. Oh the stress of it all!

[Hezz]

Oh, that’s sad, willowsmum, but hopefully better luck with another clutch. Was she a first-time mother, do you think?

I was very impressed with daddy sunbird’s antics. While they are not a timid bird, they would not normally come that close. I was in the process of saying hello and telling him what a good dad he was being, and how were his babies today? (As you do! ) I was chuffed to bits to be able to help them out. 🙂

[willowsmum]

It is so nice when they trust you like that Hezz. Yes, I think possibly a first time mum, maybe one of our previous ducklings as she seemed to know where to come for food. There is an ongoing debate about somehow trying to house the next ducklings and mum but we've had clutches of 13 before and it would need to be a pretty big enclosure to house that many until they were 50-60 days old and able to fly. Although they would no doubt be safer it would probably be stressful for them. I think we just need to keep offering as much food and shelter as we can and cross our fingers. They pretty much do there own thing though. There are 6 duck islands for them now (OH must have constructed more when I wasn't looking) each with a different size/shape/access point/level of cover and the mums still regularly choose to brood overnight on the bank of the pond

[Hezz]

You can only do so much before you slide from caring to interfering. Maybe the newer islands need to “mature” before being considered suitable for nesting. Was wondering if foxes are good swimmers, and apparently they are very good swimmers so even the islands wouldn’t be a guarantee against them. ☹️